How To Make Money Selling Plastic Bags  

“Sell a promotional product item once and it’s an accident. Sell it the second time and you’re an expert.”

Whether you’re an expert in selling promotional bags or you’ve never sold one, create an accident and let us make you an expert. We’ve been in the promotional products industry longer than any other bag supplier – and we invented hot stamping on plastic bags in 1968.

Promotional bags are different than other items because no other promotional product can approach a printed bag for advertising exposure to as wide an audience – at a lower per unit cost!

• Is a heavier weight bag stronger? The weakest point of any bag is always at the handle, never at the sides or bottom. Adding extra poly to a bag won’t make it stronger, only more expensive. The gauges of poly shown in our catalog have been chosen for maximum strength at the most economical price.

• How are bags printed? They are manufactured from scratch, first printed on rolls of poly and then converted into bags on the bag-making machines. Bags are not kept in stock as with other promotional items and then overprinted with the customer’s logo. The poly is printed with the logo on one side of the film opposite each other in two places and then folded like a bed sheet, creating the 2-side printing, so asking for 1-side printing does not lower the bag cost.

• What is hot stamping? Instead of imprinting bags in ink, we use rolls of foil available in both pigment and metallic colors. The foil color and logo is transferred onto the bag using a heated metal plate with the logo design on it; done one bag at a time. The advantage is that light colors such as white foil, can be stamped on a black bag; not so with white ink as the black bag will show through and the copy will look gray. Always use dark inks on white or light colored bags, or prepare a dropout or reverse print to allow the bag color to show through the ink color.

• Why are bags hot stamped? When an order is less than the minimum quantity for printed bags, stock bags are taken out of cartons and hot stamped with the customer’s logo, labor intensive and more expensive than printed bags. And 2-side imprinting is more expensive than 1-side imprinting. There are limitations as to foil colors available and imprint size.

• What’s a PMS color? It means Pantone Matching System, and when you specify ink colors by PMS numbers, the printer knows exactly how much of each ink color to blend to achieve the exact color your customer wants. We don’t charge extra to match colors, no matter what quantity of printed bags ordered. We cannot match PMS colors on foil hot stamped bags and page 6 shows the closest matching PMS colors to the foil colors we carry.

• Can I get a bag color that matches a PMS ink color? No, but here’s how. Have a white bag completely printed in a PMS ink color with dropouts for the additional ink colors to be inserted. The ‘Body Pump’ patch handle bag on page 2 is an example. Heat resistant inks are required that allow the bag to be sealed at the edges at a 40% upcharge over listed prices.

• Why do you have overruns? The many production processes to custom make a bag require a waste factor allowance, and ours is 20%, under or over. Do not ask for exact quantities unless your customer is willing to pay an extra 20% and then we’ll throw any overruns away and ship exact quantities.

• What’s an eye mark? Every printed bag must have a rectangular ink ‘spot’ at the edge of the bag that tells the bag cutting and sealing machine where to cut and seal the bag so the print appears in the middle of the bag. Without it, the copy could appear anywhere on the bag.

• How do I know which bag to sell? Always ask your customer these questions:

• How many bags do you need? (Meet the minimum for a printed bag?)
• When do you need them? (Printed bags take 15 production days; hot stamped bags take 5 days for production)
• What will you use them for? (This will determine the bag style and size to promote)

These questions are very important. Having the answers will help us provide you with alternative solutions for your customer.

• What size art looks best on the bag? If it’s for a hot stamped bag, the maximum copy size is shown for each bag style. Any size copy can fit on a printed bag; remember we print the film first, so use the whole bag as a billboard – the bigger the better – and allow for some unprinted space on each side of the bag: 1” to 2” depending upon the size of the bag.

• Can you make less than minimums? No, if we could we would say so.

• Do I need new plates on a reorder? No, we keep your plates on file for 5 years for reorders.

• How do I check the status of my order? Your order will be shipped within our production days shown in our catalog. The clock doesn’t start ticking until we have your order and camera-ready art in-hand. Ship dates and in-hand dates are shown on the acknowledgement that we fax to you. To check, go to: www.plasticmanbags.com and click on ‘Order status’. Our production department updates the order status to our website every day. If you call customer service, we may not have the most up-to-date schedule. We do check our email regularly. Please do not call us and ask if we got your artwork file; and we do not open graphic files unless we have your order in-hand!

• Are there running charges? No, that expression doesn’t apply to promotional bags. All bag prices include printing. The only other charge is the one-time plate charge(s) that include 2-side printing for custom printed bags and 1-side stamping on hot stamped bags. We use the same plate for 2-side hot stamping.

• Do you offer special pricing? Yes, we do. Larger quantities above the catalog quantities are specially quoted, so call us. We also offer co-op and mail order pricing on our hot stamped bags. Again, call us and tell us about your promotion.

• Which companies buy the most bags? The two biggest industries using bags are; retail packaging and corporate buyers. Retailers buy bags for consumers to carry home purchases. Corporations buy bags to hand out at trade shows and for institutional advertising of their company’s image.

• Who should I call on to sell bags to or send my catalog to? Let’s look at the various markets. First go after those that you’re now selling and then develop your own niche market. For example: we sell more shopping bags to funeral homes through distributors than all other bag suppliers combined!

• Trade show exhibitors
• Companies that hold special events, promotions, seminars, sales meetings
• Health care professionals; dentists, hospitals, medical practices, HMO’s, funeral homes
• Financial service companies; banks, insurance companies, realtors, credit unions
• Retailers; of all kinds
• Media; radio stations, telephone companies, magazines
• Institutions; Government agencies, political campaigns, schools, the military, college bookstores
• Food industry; pizzerias, food stores and companies needing insulated bags

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